Saturday, May 27, 2017

Yves Mamou : France: No-Go Zones Now in Heart of Big Cities

France: No-Go Zones Now in Heart of Big Cities

"There are several hundred
square meters of pavement abandoned to men alone; women are no longer
considered entitled to be there. Cafés, bars and restaurants are
prohibited to them, as are the sidewalks, the subway station and the
public squares." – Le Parisien.

"For more than a year, the Chapelle-Pajol district (10th-18th arrondissements)
has completely changed its face: groups of dozens of lone men, street
vendors, aliens, migrants and smugglers harass women and hold the
streets." – Le Parisien.

In the heart of Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Grenoble,
Avignon, districts here and there have been "privatized" by a mix of
drug traffickers, Salafist zealots and Islamic youth gangs. The main
victims are women. They are – Muslim and non-Muslim -- sexually
harassed; some are sexually assaulted. The politicians, as usual, are
fully informed of the situation imposed upon women.

In January, 2015, a week after the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the American television channel Fox News created a scandal
in France by claiming that Islamic "no-go zones" were established in
the heart of Paris. For the French media, the existence of no-go zones
-- where non-Muslims are unwelcome and Islamic law, sharia, holds sway
-- in the heart of the capital was pure nonsense and horrifying "fake
news." Paris's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said she planned to sue Fox News and that the "honor of Paris" was at stake.

By May 2017, however, the tone had changed. The French daily, Le Parisien,disclosed
that, in fact, no-go zones are in the heart of the capital. It seems
that the district of Chapelle-Pajol, in the east of Paris, has become
very much a no-go zone. Hundreds of Muslim migrants and drug dealers
crowd the streets, and harass women for wearing what many of these
migrants apparently regard as immodest clothing:

"Women in this part of eastern Paris complain that they
cannot move about without being subjected to comments and insults from
men."There are several hundred square meters of pavement abandoned to men
alone; women are no longer considered entitled to be there. Cafés, bars
and restaurants are prohibited to them, as are the sidewalks, the
subway station and the public squares. For more than a year, the
Chapelle-Pajol district (10th-18th arrondissements) has
completely changed its face: groups of dozens of lone men, street
vendors, aliens, migrants and smugglers harass women and hold the
streets."

Natalie, a 50-year-old resident of the area said:
"The atmosphere is agonizing, to the point of having to modify our
routes and our clothing. Some [women] even gave up going out."

Aurélie, 38, who has lived in the area for 15 years, said that the
café-bar below her apartment had been a pleasant place, but has turned
into an exclusively male establishment. "I have to listen to a lot of
remarks when I pass by, especially since they drink a lot," she said.
A
local 80-year-old woman is reported to have totally stopped leaving her
apartment after being sexually assaulted one day as she was returning
home. Another woman is said to suffer a flood of insults simply by
standing at her window.

Mayor Hidalgo is not talking about suing the media for defaming the
honor of Paris anymore. She even said that this security issue has been
"identified for several weeks", and proposed launching
an "exploratory process" to combat discrimination against women and a
"local delinquency treatment group". It was slightly hollow, Orwellian
"newspeak," and aroused mockery and indignation on social networks.

Mentioning no-go zones in France was, until recently, taboo. It was
regarded as "racist" or "Islamophobic" -- most of the time both -- to
talk about that. In May 2016, Patrick Kanner, France's Minister for
Urban Areas, harassed by journalists, finally acknowledged the truth
: "There are today, we know, a hundred neighborhoods in France that
present potential similarities with what has happened in Molenbeek." He
was referring to the infamous neighborhood in Brussels, under Salafist
control, which has become the epicenter of jihad in Europe.
What is new, is that no-go zones are no longer relegated to the
suburbs, where migrants and Muslims have usually been concentrated.

No-go zones, through mass migration, have been emerging in the heart
of Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Grenoble, Avignon -- districts
"privatized" here and there by a mix of drug traffickers, Salafist
zealots and Islamic youth gangs. The main victims are women. They are --
both Muslim and non-Muslim -- sexually harassed; some are sexually
assaulted.

Politicians, as usual, are fully informed of the situation imposed upon women. A 2014 report
from the High Commissioner on Equality revealed that in the so-called
"sensitive urban areas," nearly one in ten women has suffered physical
or sexual violence.

Another report handed to the government, in September 2016, by the organization "France Médiation" revealed significant details, albeit written in chastened terms:

Public areas are "occupied" exclusively by men who "park" there, and women are merely authorized to pass through them...It's not unique to this city: in the past 10 years, women have been seen public spaces desert them."You have to stay away, not provoke. I always go out with my children so there is no problem."In some places, male groups "monopolize" public spaces and sometimes block the access to the entrances of buildingsWomen are obliged to avoid the elevator in order to flee glances and
remarks that are sometimes unpleasant. They have go up the stairs --
dirty, unlit and several stories high.Cafés are occupied exclusively by men; women do not dare to enter them; they even avoid passing by.

The newly elected French president, Emmanuel Macron, ostensibly
avoided security questions during the election campaign. No doubt,
security questions will overtake him sooner than he thinks.

(Image source: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Yves Mamou, author and journalist, based in France, worked for two decades as a journalist for Le Monde.

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